Albania opened their new, 22,500-seat stadium with a hard-fought loss against France.

Early on, Bayern Munich’s Corentin Tolisso gave the impression that the home fans were in for a long night at the inaugurating Air Albania Stadium, opening the score just eight minutes in with a well-placed header. In the 31st minute, an unfamiliar face, Leo Dubois, connected with Antoine Griezmann, who slotted the ball into the bottom-right corner. France finish the qualifiers leaders of Group H with 25 points. Throughout the 10 matches, the world champions lost only once, a 2-0 loss against Turkey.

Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson scored the visitor’s second and winning goal in the second half, as Iceland walked away from Zimbru Stadium with a 2-1 win on Sunday.

With 19 points throughout 10 games, Rúnar Kristinsson and company felt five points short of qualifying directly for next year’s competition. That said, they’ll partake in the Euro 2020 playoffs, looking to squeeze their way in.

Unal, a striker who moved to Man City from Bursaspor at the age of 18 two summers ago, cost the Premier League side a paltry $2.5 million at the time. Having spent two years “at the club” (he went on loan three times) and failed to gain a work permit, the 20-year-old Turkish international is off to Villarreal, for a transfer fee of $15.5 million.

The transfer agreement between the two clubs also includes a buy-back fee in the neighborhood of $22.5 million. City would only exercise such a clause of Unal reaches an elite level, at which point they’d have acquired a world-class striker only just entering the prime of his career, for all of $9.5 million at the end of the day.

It’s a decent bit of business, if you’ve got 1) cash in excess to essentially write off if/when it doesn’t work out; 2) all the time in the world with which to play the “long game.”

Unal scored 19 goals in 33 appearances (all competitions) while on loan to Eredivisie side Twente this season. He scored 11 in 28 during a pair of half-season loan spells, to Belgian side Genk and Dutch second-division side NAC Breda.

That’s the multi-million dollar question when it comes to the UEFA Champions League side, who brought in English stars Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph this summer and are heavily-linked with Wolfsburg’s Kevin De Bruyne and even Juventus’ Paul Pogba.

Regardless, Manuel Pellegrini has held onto his job and will lead the pursuit of City’s third title in five years. City boasted the Premier League’s best goal differential last season, but finished second to Chelsea by eight points.

Star player: Sergio Aguero – With respect to David Silva, Aguero is deadly when healthy. His 32 goals in 40 matches last season include six in 7 UEFA Champions League matches, and the 27-year-old has backed up his club work with 7 goals in 7 appearances for Argentina so far in 2015. He’s the reigning Golden Boot winner in the Premier League, and likely the favorite to do it again in 2015-16.

Last season: 2nd, Champions League Round of 16, FA Cup fourth round, League Cup fourth round — A Spring swoon cost City its hopes at a title, as the Manchester club went through a 2-4 stretch. The losses at Liverpool and Manchester United may be forgiven by some, but losses at Burnley and Crystal Palace are another story. City lost 12 points at home last season, and will hope to make the Etihad Stadium back into a fortress.

Coaches’ Corner: Pellegrini’s status as City boss was a hot topic in the Spring, but he held onto his job, perhaps for good reason. Can he coax a better season out of Yaya Toure, and find the goods to boost Sterling from a promising player to a surefire star? Will he last into the start of the UEFA Champions League, where City put themselves in a notorious position during last year’s group stage before climbing out? Can he spearhead Cup runs that last longer than two rounds? Pellegrini went from a Double in 2013-14 to nothing last year. That won’t do this time around.

PST predicts: City is getting older, and needs a Yaya renaissance to contend for a title. Adding De Bruyne would give them the depth to compete in Europe, but adding Pogba would launch them into the stratosphere of UCL favorites (despite their lack of resume). As is, City is a contender for the Top Four that could finish as low as fifth behind Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.